Quapaw | |
---|---|
Arkansas, O-gah-pah, Okáxpa | |
Native to | United States |
Region | Arkansas, Oklahoma |
Ethnicity | 160 Quapaw (2000 census) [1] |
Native speakers | 1 (2019) [2] |
Siouan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | qua |
Glottolog | quap1242 |
ELP | Quapaw |
Map showing the distribution of Oklahoma Indian languages |
Quapaw, or Arkansas, is a Siouan language of the Quapaw people, originally from a region in present-day Arkansas. It is now spoken in Oklahoma.
It is similar to the other Dhegihan languages: Kansa, Omaha, Osage and Ponca.
The Quapaw language is well-documented in field notes and publications from many individuals including by George Izard in 1827, by Lewis F. Hadly in 1882, from 19th-century linguist James Owen Dorsey, in 1940 by Frank Thomas Siebert, and, in the 1970s by linguist Robert Rankin. [3]
The Quapaw language does not conform well to English language phonetics, and a writing system for the language has not been formally adopted. All of the existing source material on the language utilizes different writing systems, making reading and understanding the language difficult for the novice learner. To address this issue, an online dictionary of the Quapaw language is being compiled which incorporates all of the existing source material known to exist into one document using a version of the International Phonetic Alphabet which has been adapted for Siouan languages. [4]
Siebert found 23 consonants in his limited research, [5] while Rankin found 26. When compared with Rankin, Siebert does not include /b/, /d/, or /ʔ/. He also puts the velar plosives and postalveolar fricatives together in a palatal column. The following chart uses Rankin's analysis.
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p pː | t tː | k kː | ʔ | ||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||||
glottalized | tʼ | kʼ | |||||
voiced | b | d | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | x | h | ||
glottalized | sʼ | ʃʼ | xʼ | ||||
voiced | z | ʒ | |||||
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Approximant | w |
In addition to the vowels Rankin found in the below chart, Siebert included four long oral vowels /aː/, /eː/, /iː/, and /oː/.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i ĩ | ||
Mid | e | o õ | |
Open | a ã |
Ardina Moore taught Quapaw language classes through the tribe. [7] As of 2012, Quapaw language lessons are available online or by DVD. [7]
An online audio lexicon of the Quapaw language is available on the tribal website to assist language learners. [8] The lexicon incorporates audio of first language speakers who were born between 1870 and 1918.
The 2nd Annual Dhegiha Gathering in 2012 brought Quapaw, Osage, Kaw, Ponca, and Omaha speakers together to share best practices in language revitalization. [9] A Quapaw Tribal Youth Language and Cultural Preservation Camp teaches the language to children, and the Quapaw Tribal Museum offers classes for adults. [10]
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The Kaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas.
The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje, are a Native American Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of speakers has declined markedly due to colonial legacy, lack of support, and other factors.
The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a large language family native to North America. They are closely related to the Catawban languages, sometimes called Eastern Siouan, and together with them constitute the Siouan (Siouan–Catawban) language family.
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The Osage Nation is a Midwestern American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 B.C. along with other groups of its language family. They migrated west after the 17th century, settling near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as a result of Iroquois expansion into the Ohio Country in the aftermath of the Beaver Wars.
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James Owen Dorsey was an American ethnologist, linguist, and Episcopalian missionary in the Dakota Territory, who contributed to the description of the Ponca, Omaha, and other southern Siouan languages. He worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution from 1880 to 1895, when he died young of typhoid fever. He became known as the expert on languages and culture of southern Siouan peoples, although he also studied tribes of the Southwest and Northwest.
Omaha–Ponca is a Siouan language spoken by the Omaha (Umoⁿhoⁿ) people of Nebraska and the Ponca (Paⁿka) people of Oklahoma and Nebraska. The two dialects differ minimally but are considered distinct languages by their speakers.
The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, also known as the Ponca Nation, is one of two federally recognized tribes of Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Traditionally, peoples of both tribes have spoken the Omaha-Ponca language, part of the Siouan language family. They share many common cultural norms and characteristics with the Omaha, Osage, Kaw, and Quapaw peoples.
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Kansa is a Siouan language of the Dhegihan group once spoken by the Kaw people of Oklahoma. Vice President Charles Curtis spoke Kansa as a child. The last mother-tongue speaker, Ralph Pepper, died in June 1982.
Ardina Moore was a Quapaw/Osage Native American from Miami, Oklahoma. A fluent Quapaw language speaker, she developed a language preservation program and taught the language to younger tribal members.
Victor Griffin was the elected chief of Quapaw Tribe of Indians and a peyote roadman from Quapaw, Oklahoma. Griffin was commonly called either Victor or Vic, and rarely used his first name, William. He conferred with every U.S. president during his term as chief.
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Turned P is an additional letter of the Latin script which was used in the orthographies of certain Siouan languages, mostly by James Owen Dorsey in the 19th century. Its lowercase form is used in the Anthropos alphabet, the phonetic alphabet of the journal Anthropos.